Tablesaw Blade Alignment

[Mr Fixit eh]

I struggled for quite a while to try and get the blade adjusted parallel to the miter slot. Thinking I had a Delta Unisaw (purchased second-hand), I loosened up the 4 bolts that secure the tabletop to the cabinet and tap-tap-tapped. I couldn't get any adjustment.

I phoned Delta and it turns out that I don't have a Unisaw. Mine is a

10" Cabinet Saw 36-750 sold in Canada. This is similar to the Hybrid saw they sell today. The trunnions are mounted to the tabletop.

Amazing! I was able to get the blade within .001" using my new dial indicator. It sure makes a cleaner cut. I was seeing alot of burn marks cutting 3/4" melamine with a crosscut sled. Now there is no burning.

Now, the Delta Tech explained that I should clamp each of the trunnion brackets to the tabletop before loosening the trunnion bolts and adjusting. Does this make sense?

I did not do this clamping step. I found that it was very fiddley. No matter how hard I'd try to keep the blade in alignment during the re-tightening of the trunnion bolts, when I final-tightened the front-right-side bolt, the blade skewed such that the back of the blade was closer to the left-hand side. The only way I finally got it into alignment was to start off with the blade an equal amount skewed to the right side, then tighten up the bolts. It finally came out within .001"

Do I need to re-do the whole alignment now that it is aligned?

Would the step of clamping the trunnion brackets have prevented the assembly from twisting during the tightening? Thanks for your help.

Mr Fixit eh

[J]

Yes, you do not want the thing flopping around while you are adjusting it. Using the clamps means that the trunions are held in place firmly enough that you can move it with the blow of a mallet or 2x4, but not by any lesser means.

This is why the clamping was suggested.

If it is aligned, it is aligned. If you want to re-align for practice, go ahead.

It should help with that. Yes.

-j

[Silvan]

Tighten the *hell* out of the bolts (without getting them so tight you crack the cast iron) then run away fast. Once you get it to within 0.001" it's time to quit while you're ahead. DAMHIKT.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If you don't trust the guy from Delta, I have no reason to think that you would believe me either. To me it makes a lot of sense.

[Mr Fixit eh]

J said

Practice....ha, ha, ha. I posted the question because I was desparately hoping I didn't have to go through the torture again.

Ed said

[Mr Fixit eh]

Ok, so apparently the answer was that I should have used the clamps. Two weeks/ 30 cuts later and the blade was way out of alignment (.014").

I gave it another go last night with the clamps, and I added lock washers to the trunnion bolts.

Does anyone have torque values for the trunnion bolts, I really don't want to strip/ break a bolt.

Another thing I found out by trial and error is that even with using clamps, the right-hand bolt in the front trunnion tends to pull the alignment out-of-whack during final-tightening. I found I got best results by tightening this bolt to final torque first, then tapped it back into alignment, then tightened the other bolts up tight. This way it stayed in alignment better.

Any other tricks I should know about.

Mr Fixit eh

[Pat Barber]